Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Osawatomie

The President’s early December speech in Osawatomie, Kansas is an indicator of both tonight’s State of the Union presentation and his coming Campaign!by Charlie Leck

It’s okay, I think, to try to guess where the President is going to go with his State of the Union address tonight. It’s part of the game, you know – just like trying to forecast the results of the Super Bowl in two weeks.

First off, recognize the fact that the 2012 race to the White House has begun. It’s too bad! We’d rather it hadn’t, but it has and it is going to be boring for the first few months. Now, here in mid-January, comes a chance for the President to respond to some of those awful things Republicans have been saying about him as they campaign in primaries from Iowa to New England to Florida.

So, what will the President say?
Just go back and read the President’s early December speech in Osawatomie, Kansas. That’s the speech in which he praised Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, who served two terms from 1901-1909. In the speech, Obama tried to take on much of the character and charisma of Teddy. There’s good reason; for Teddy Roosevelt was a tough character and a popular president – and he was the leader of the Rough Riders into Cuba during the Spanish-American War. He received posthumously the Medal of Honor in 2001. Roosevelt had grown up in a privileged family, attended Harvard and Columbia Law School and was adept in 5 languages. Nevertheless, Tough Teddy was closely identified as common and middle class.

Obama reminded his listeners that his grandparents had lived in Kansas. His grandmother was born in Wichita. His grandpa served in Patton’s army in World War II. His grandma worked on a bomber assembly line.

“Together, they shared the optimism of a nation that triumped over a Depression and fascism. They believed in an America where hard work paid off, responsibility was rewarded, and anyone could make it if they tried – no matter who you were, where you came from, or how your started out.”

Obama is going to take on a tough-guy character and he is going to begin speaking very directly and strongly about America’s forgotten and abused middle class. He’s going to begin challenging Republicans instead of trying to inveigle them.

He’s going to ask clearly: “What has happened to the Middle Class?” He’s going to talk about the wide gap between the wealthy and the rest. He’s going to plead for generosity and compassion and he going to attack selfishness and greed.

He’s going to talk about the former America and compare it to the current America.

He’s going to paint a picture about where this America is headed.

He’s going to line up on the side of the massive percentage of the population that is not wealthy. He’s going to ask them what the Republican Party has done for them.

As the president said in Osawatomie…

“But this isn’t just another political debate. This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make or break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class. At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home, and secure their retirement.

“Now, in the midst of this debate, there are some who seem to be suffering from a kind of collective amnesia. After all that’s happened, after the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, they want to return to the same practices that got us into this mess. In fact, they want to go back to the same policies that have stacked the deck against middle-class Americans for too many years. Their philosophy is simple: we are better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules.”

You’ll hear much more of the same tonight. “We have got to make the middle class important in America again. This is the defining issue of our time!”

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About Me

I write these blogs to leave behind a full picture of me for my grandchildren. I had no such snapshot of my own grandparents and what they believed and how they thought. Ad Astra, you probably know, is Latin for To the Stars. Without being literal about it, it's my final destination (where I "shall forever sit, triumphing over death, and chance, and Thee, O Time").